


Finding Family

by PaperbackGarden



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2017-12-04
Packaged: 2019-02-03 07:16:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12743592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaperbackGarden/pseuds/PaperbackGarden
Summary: World 89.No one talks about world 89 unless they're ready to watch Barry blink back tears and watch Lup shut down completely.If they could have done something different, they would have. If they could go back, they would.But they can't.So they live with the knowledge that somewhere, in a world they saved, a world with pink water and five moons, a kid grows up without parents. A kid grows up,surrounded by stories and objects so they know they're loved, but will never actually know their parents.That kid has a different outlook on the situation.After all, the way she sees it, it's just a matter of time before she travels the planar system to find her mom, dad, and the crew they travel with.Today is the day.Melody Bluejeans is coming home.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on a tumblr post. I will put a link to the post later when I get the chance. (I'm at school right now and they have tumblr blocked on the computers.)

Looking at the picture, I can see how the two in the center are my parents. I have my mom’s thin build, my dad’s short height, my mom’s lips, and my father’s my father’s eyes (bad sight and all). I guess my dark hair must come from my mom’s side, because the man on her other side has dark hair and he is obviously her brother. I always wonder if she dyed it to get her’s blonde. My skin tone is somewhere between the two of them, and freckles sprinkle over my nose and cheeks.   
The perfect family.   
For a second my eyes scan the others in the picture. I know even less about them than I do about my parents. At least I know my parents’ names.   
I wonder if they made it.   
People tell me about them when I ask. They tell me that the seven adventurers showed up one day in a silver ship. They say they were from another plane and they were being chased to each new one they went. They say that even if the adventurers died on their journey, they would reappear next year. They say six of the seven stayed behind to make sure I was safe, but as the ship disappeared into the darkness, the people who stayed behind vanished. No one but the seven could leave on this ship, or else they would have taken me with.   
Tucked in the frame with the picture was a note. I hadn’t touched it in a while, but that was okay. I had it memorized.   
_Dear Melody Bluejeans  
We are so sorry we left. If we could have stayed we would have, but it’s not physically possible. We know this won’t make any sense, but if we stay behind we will just reappear on the ship when the other’s leave. If we all stay behind, this world will be consumed and everyone in it will die. We love you so much. Never forget that. Always keep in mind that somewhere out there, you have a mom and a dad who love you very much, as well as another five people whose lives you lit up in the little time they knew you.   
We left you some gifts that I hope you will appreciate. I wish we could have given you more. Magnus carved you a duck, Davenport left you his captain’s hat, Merle made you a seashell necklace, Taako left you shoes he won on our homeworld, Lucretia made you a picture that changes between just the two of us or the whole crew.   
Your dad left you a jean jacket that will always fit you and will protect you from magical harm. Your mom left you a pen that doubles as a magic wand.   
We love you so much. We’re so sorry we left. We will do everything in our power to find a way to get you back when this is all over.   
Love, your parents, Barry and Lup. _  
Sometimes, when I'm bored, I used to match the names listed with the faces in the picture. I could never know for sure if I was right or not though. Eventually I gave up on that and began to focus on my important things in relation to my parents.   
How to find them. 

A knock at my door breaks through the silence, interrupting my thoughts. I carefully shove the picture in my bag and call out.   
“Come in!”  
Lee enters my room and looks around. It was always a pretty bare room, but now it is pretty much empty. I sold everything I could and bought supplies for the journey ahead.   
“Are you ready?” They ask, adjusting their own bag nervously. I nod once.   
“As ready as I’ll ever be. Let’s go find my parents.”


	2. Chapter 2

I think I may be the queen of bad ideas.   
As Lee and I walk hand-in-hand to where I plan on casting the spell, I realize that this may get us both killed. Sure, I know my plan is based on a pretty solid theory, but it’s still unbelievably dangerous and frankly a bit stupid.   
Back when I was fifteen, Lee and I began to develop a spell that could make an interplanar portal. It took two years, but we finally found something that worked. Cast it on an object, and a large circle of said object will began to ripple. I had tried to stick my arm through it (much to Lee’s horror) but it had acted like a solid (much to Lee’s relief). With a some tests, we realized a few things.   
1) The portal vanishes one minute after being cast.   
2) If an object is going fast enough, it can pass through.   
3) Running headlong into it is not fast enough to pass through.   
4) Running headlong into a wall hurts and it not recommended.   
And so that’s how we ended up here, on the edge of a cliff, ready to free-fall into a portal with hopefully enough speed to pass through. As bad of an idea as this seems, Lee actually had a plan to make it less terrible.   
Several feet from the ground they had secured a hoop with a very thin wet paper stretched over it. The plan is to cast the spell on the paper and fall through. If it doesn’t work, I will have enough time left to cast feather-fall on us and we’ll actually walk away with our lives.   
All this cliff-jumping spell-casting aside, there’s one more reason this isn’t the best idea.   
“Lee, are you sure you want to come with?”   
They turn to look at me, and for a second I’m sure this is it. I’m sure they’ve changed their mind and this is goodbye. At least they’ll be safe.   
“Mel. Babe. You’ve asked my that three times in the last few hours. I’m sure.”   
“It’s going to be dangerous.”  
“All the more reason I should come. Someone has to keep you alive.”   
“I am perfectly capable of keeping myself alive, you dork.”   
“Of course you are. So let’s jump off this cliff now, shall we.” They teased.   
I am very short, and Lee is pretty tall, but if I stand on my tiptoes I can pull their face down to kissing height. When I pull away I hold their hand in mine and nod once.   
“You ready?”   
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”   
We take five steps back to prepare our running start. We need all the momentum we can get.   
“On three.” I say, taking out my pen-wand.   
“One…” Lee holds my hand tighter. “...two…” I feel my heartbeat speed up “...three.”   
Just like that we’re racing towards the edge. My feet hit with the ground in one, two, three, long strides, but the fourth step connects with open air, and just like that we’re falling. I cast the spell on the large circle in front of me and watch it ripple. Too soon we’re falling through, and then the world goes dark.


	3. Chapter 3

I feel like crap.   
I guess I must have been out cold, because I wake up on the ground looking at the sky. I drained, like someone ripped all of the energy out of my body with their bare hands.Light attacks my eyes when I open them, so I close them again. I just want to sleep.  
“Melody, babe, please answer me.”   
I force my eyes open again but this time Lee’s face blocks my view of the sky. I suppose he had been talking to me before.   
“I think I’m gonna throw up.” I’m a real romantic, I know.   
“That makes sense; you did just transport us between two planar systems. Melody, you did it.”   
My head clears a little and I sit up. The world spins for just a moment before settling down and allowing me to take it all in. I’m sitting in the grass, surrounded by the small stones we had launched through the portal to experiment. It’s nighttime, and three moons light up the sky. That isn’t right. My world has five.   
“We did it!” I cheered, and stood up fast in excitement.  
I promptly lost balance and nearly fell back over. Luckily, Lee caught me.   
“Hey babe?”  
“Yeah Mel?”   
“I’m going to throw up now.” 

Lee, gods bless them, holds my hair back as I lose my lunch to the grass. When I’ve finished with that unpleasant business, we walk towards a nearby river to talk. The water runs clear, which is odd in comparison to the pink of the water back home.   
I probably should stop calling that world home. I can never go back after all. That’s when it hits me.   
“This is it. We physically cannot turn back now.”  
“You’re right.” Lee says, sitting down next to the weird clear water “Now it’s just a matter of finding your parents, huh?”  
“Yup!” I respond, grinning from ear to ear. “We’re on our way.”   
My mood dropped when he says his next words.   
“The original plan isn’t going to work, is it?”   
The original plan. We were going to go from planar system to planar system. We’d ask the nearest civilization if the hunger attacked. If they say yes, but then it backed off, it’s a world my parents and the rest of their team escaped. If they say it never attacked, or if it attacked and they won, my parents must be on that world. Each world we get to where my parents aren’t there, we’d open a portal to the next one. Simple. Easy. Elegant.   
But I can’t just open another portal. Not anytime soon, anyways. It took too much out of me.   
“I have no spell slots. I was full before we left.”   
“Could it be that the portal is a combination of a lot of spells, or is it because it’s such a big one?”   
“Probably both.” I responded “The thought of trying any magic right now makes me dizzy.”   
“Then we wait. The journey might take longer than expected, but we’ll jump whenever we can, and then rest.”   
I can accept that. I don’t want to, but I can. No point going fast if it kills me before I get to my destination.   
But gods I wish we could go fast.   
“Alright. We should find a town and ask about my parents and the hunger, though.”   
The look they gave me was full of worry “Do you need to rest longer before we travel?”  
“Lee. Honey. Don’t you know me? I’ll be fine. 

I am most definitely not fine. We’re only fifteen minutes into our trek towards civilization and I feel like dying. Normally I have the stamina of a horse, but that spell really did a number on me. At least we know where we’re going. We can see the lights of a town about an hour’s walk from our spot on the river. I’ll consider it a stroke of luck if I survive until we make it.  
“Would some travel music help?” Lee asks. They know me too well to ask me if I want a break. I’d say no.   
“I think so, yeah.”   
Lee had opted to leave their guitar behind, bringing a ukulele instead. It’s a stupid little thing, covered in doodles and notes from one of us to the other, but they can make it sound great with the skill only a bard can have. The song they start singing is a stupid one about a duck that wanted to be a doctor. It has almost no tune and is utterly ridiculous, but by the end I find I can’t stop laughing.   
I think Lee knows me too well, because we’re arriving at the gates of the city before I know it. They put their ukulele away and hold my hand tight.   
“They’re probably not on this world.” I say   
“You’re not wrong, but there’s only one way to find out.” 

The town is smaller than I would have liked, but that’s okay. There’s still a cheap hotel with an open room. By some stroke of luck, our form of currency is also accepted here. We make it up to our hotel room and I fall onto the bed. I’m out cold before I can even feel my face touch the pillow.


	4. Chapter 4

When I wake up, sun is filtering through the window. My headache is gone, finally, and I feel ready to adventure.   
I sit up slowly, swinging my feet around and off the bed. I stand and change my clothes. I only packed two shirts and one spare pairs of pants, I need to travel light after all. As I’m searching for the shirt I want, I decide to do a quick inventory check. We just jumped through a portal and walked a while, there’s no way I lost anything, but the fear grips my heart and I check anyway. What if someone snuck in last night and stole my things from in the bag? I can’t be too careful.   
Clothes, money, and snacks: check. If those things are still here, no one would have stolen the others.   
I look anyways.   
The captain’s hat is there. The picture is there. The duck is there. The shoes that I had packed so I could wear my hiking boots are there. I’m wearing the seashell necklace. I’m wearing the jacket. I pat my pants and my pen-wand is in my pocket.   
And I can breathe a sigh of relief.   
Lee enters holding a meal, but turns around with their back to me when they see I’m in my underwear.  
“Tell me when, Ma’am.” Lee said jokingly.   
“I’ve changed in front of you before” I say, slipping my shirt on over my head. “There. I’m dressed.”   
They turn to look at me. “It’s a matter of respect. I feel bad walking in on you”   
“You’re too nice for this world.” I say, pushing everything back in my bag. My eyes settle on the food they brought back. “Sandwiches for breakfast?” I teased.   
“It’s noon, babe.”   
Oh. Oh okay then.   
“Sorry.” I said “I didn’t mean to oversleep.”  
“It’s fine. I already hit the town. They said the hunger came and left. They took some blows but they survived, obviously.”  
“So my parents aren’t here.”   
“Yeah. Are you well enough to try again?”   
“I mean I have to. There’s no point staying here.”   
“Maybe you should take a day to rest.” Lee explains “The jump took a lot out of you.”   
“Love, we need to hurry.” I say, tossing my bag over my shoulder “I don’t want to sit around any longer than I have to. The gods only know how many of these worlds we’ll have to go through.”   
They nod in understanding “if it’s too much though, we take a break next world, okay.”   
This time I nod “Agreed.”   
Lee leans down to kiss me before saying with a smile “Let’s go jump off a building.”

Jumping off a building should not be a difficult task. Hell, we’ll settle for a bridge or another cliff, maybe a large tree, or anything tall enough to get us the velocity we need to teleport.   
Unfortunately, everything in this place is short and hates us.   
“Excuse me ma’am.” I said, sitting on a bench besides an elderly woman. I shoot her my largest smile. “Do you know where I could find a bridge, tall building, or cliff in the area.”   
At the woman’s look of pure terror, I switched tactics.  
“For research, ma’am. My heart and I are testing how different weight affecting spells act on different objects.”   
“Your heart?” The woman asked.   
“Significant other. Love of my life. My heart.” I gestured behind me, to where Lee was talking to another local. They looked mildly distressed.   
“Ah. Such nice children in love.”  
“I’m seventeen and they’re 18. We’re hardly kids, ma’am, and could you please instruct us to the nearest high place?”   
“We don’t have any.”  
I don’t think I heard her right “What?”  
“Too dangerous. Tall things are forbidden.”   
Oh she has GOT to be joking.   
“Thank you, ma’am.” 

I make my way back over to Lee, who looks just as put out as I feel.   
“No dice?” I ask.   
“She said tall things are banned.” They explain, shoving their hands in their pockets.   
“That’s what my guy said too.” I release a long sigh “What type of wack world doesn’t have tall things?”  
“Could you cast levitate on us?” Lee asks hopefully “Would that work?”   
“Teleporting takes all my energy. I can’t cast something right before-hand.” I hate the words as they leave my mouth. I sound like I’m admitting defeat and I refuse to admit defeat. “There has to be something.”   
We start on our way back to the hotel, deep in thought as we try to figure out a way around this.  
“Tall things can’t be banned through the whole world.” They say “We’ll just have to travel until we find something.”  
I nod once. I don’t want to spend any longer on this world than need be, and having to travel any distance to find a way out is infuriating.  
“A journey within our journey. Sounds fun.” I say, my tone revealing my disappointment with the situation.  
“Hey. We will find your parents eventually. This is just a setback. I know you hate setbacks but we will get through this soon. I promise.”   
“I know that but I hate waiting, Lee. When the hell is ‘soon?!”’ I ask throwing my arms out in exasperation, hitting Lee in the chest. Well shit.   
“I’m sorry, love.” I say, dropping my hand to my side instantly.   
“It’s okay. Here.” They lace their fingers in mine “If you manage to hit me with my own hand, I’ll be too impressed to feel it.”   
I laugh softly. Gods am I grateful for Lee. Their hand feels right in mine and their half smile calms me down. I can get through this with them by my side. I can do anything with Lee by my side.   
“Well,” I said with a small smile “Best get started on this mini journey then, huh?”


End file.
